The propagandistic narration of the defeat of the Spanish Armada and the mythical construction of sir Francis Drake in Romantic Britain

  1. José Ruiz Mas
Revista:
Cuadernos de Ilustración y Romanticismo: Revista del Grupo de Estudios del siglo XVIII

ISSN: 2173-0687

Año de publicación: 2023

Título del ejemplar: Flujos de información a finales de la primera edad global

Número: 29

Páginas: 315-330

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.25267/CUAD_ILUS_ROMANT.2023.I29.17 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDialnet editor

Otras publicaciones en: Cuadernos de Ilustración y Romanticismo: Revista del Grupo de Estudios del siglo XVIII

Resumen

In this article, I analyse the literary images of the Spanish Armada and of one of its main English protagonists, Sir Francis Drake, as perceived and depicted by Robert Southey and by a number of British Romantic poets, travel and short story writers (George Lipscomb, Lord Byron, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Joseph Train, Mrs Anna Eliza Bray and Christian Isobel Johnstone). In their literary descriptions of the alleged Spanish naval disaster in 1588, they spread the English “victory” to a wider and a younger readership and mocked Spain’s past naval hegemony. As far as the depiction of the legendary Drake, they insisted on presenting an idealised version of the English hero. I explain the gradual Romantic construction of two popular English myths that are still rampant in the British imaginary: the uncontested English victory on the Spanish Armada in 1588 and the deification of the persona of Drake, a process in which Southey took a leading role

Referencias bibliográficas

  • Bennett, W. C. (ed.) (1870), The School Book of Poetry, London, Thomas Murby.
  • Bray, Anna Eliza (1836), A Description of the Parts of Devonshire Bordering on the Tamar and Tavy. Its Natural History, Manners, Superstitions, Scenery, Antiquities, Biography of Eminent Persons, &c &c in a Series of Letters to Robert Southey, Esq., London, John Murray, 3 vols.
  • Bristow, H. (1832), «Relation of the Voyage Performed from Corunna by the Royal Armada, Commanded by General the Duke of Medina Sidonia and of the Events which Happened on Board» (Part i. Original Papers), The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, vol. xxxiv, Jan 1. London, Henry Colburn.
  • Cáceres Würsig, Ingrid, and Remedios Solano (2019), Reyes y pueblos: poesía alemana del Trienio Liberal, Salamanca, Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca.
  • Camden, William (1615-17), Annalium Rerum Anglicarum et Hibernicarum, regnante Elizabetha, ad annum salutis m.d. lxxxix, Londoni, Types Guilielmi Stansbij, Impensis Simonis Watersoni, ad insigne Coronae in Caementerio Pavlino.
  • Clímaco, Cristina, and Lola Bermúdez Medina (2019), El llanto de España: poesía francesa del Trienio Liberal, Salamanca, Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca.
  • Coletes Blanco, Agustín, and Alicia Laspra Rodríguez (2019), Romántico país: poesía inglesa del Trienio Liberal, Salamanca, Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca.
  • Dibdin, Thomas John (1824), The Lyre: A Collection of the Most Approved English, Irish, and Scottish Songs, Ancient and Modern, Edinburgh, A. Stewart.
  • Dickens, Charles (1853), «Joseph Train», Household Words, 173, 16 July, pp. 475-76.
  • Gândara Terenas, Gabriela, and Beatriz Peralta García (2019), Contadles a los españoles: poesía portuguesa del Trienio Liberal, Salamanca, Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca.
  • González Martín, Vicente, and Mercedes González de Sande (2019), La Constitución soñada: poesía italiana del Trienio Liberal, Salamanca, Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca.
  • Grimstone, Edward (1608), A Generall Historie of the Netherlands: with the genealogie and memorable acts of the Earls of Holland, Zeeland, and West-Friseland, from Thierry of Aquitaine the first Earle, successively unto Philip the Third, King of Spain: Continued unto ... 1608, out of the best authors that have written of that subject, London, A. Islip and G. Eld.
  • Hakluyt, Richard (1589), The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation: Made by Sea or Over Land to the Most Remote and Farthest Distant Quarters of the Earth at Any Time within the Compasse of These 1500 Years: [etc.], London, Imprinted by George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, printer to the Queen’s Most Excellent Majestie.
  • Herrera y Tordesillas, Antonio (1612), Tercera parte de la Historia general del Mundo... desde el año 1585 hasta el de 1598... escrita por Antonio de Herrera..., Madrid, Alonso Martin de Balboa a costa de Alonso Perez.
  • Hole, Christina (1940), Haunted England. A Survey of English Ghost-lore, London, Batsford.
  • Hole, Christina (1948), English Folk-Heroes, London, New York, Toronto, Sydney, B. T. Batsford.
  • Johnstone, C. I. (1837), Lives and Voyages of Drake, Cavendish, and Dampier. Including a View of the History of Buccaneers. With Three Portraits Engraved by Horsburgh. Third Edition, Edinburgh, Oliver & Boyd; London, Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.
  • Kempe, John A. (ed.) (1884), Autobiography of Anna Eliza Bray. (Born 1789: died 1883), London, Chapman and Hall.
  • Lardner, Dionysius (ed.) (1830-46), Cabinet Cyclopaedia, London, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 133 vols.
  • Lipscomb, George (1799), A Journey into Cornwall, through the Counties of Southampton, Wilts, Dorset, Somerset & Devon. Interpersed with remarks, moral, historical, literary and political, Warwick, H. Sharpe.
  • Lockhart, John G. (1837), Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott. In Three Volumes, Paris, Baudry’s European Library.
  • Macaulay, Thomas Babington (1842), Lays of Ancient Rome, London, A. Spottiswoode for Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans.
  • Macaulay, Thomas Babington (1851), Lays of Ancient Rome; with Ivry; and The Armada, Leipzig Bernh, Tauchnitz.
  • Macaulay, Thomas Babington (1866), The Works of Lord Macaulay, London, Longmans, Green & Co. 8 vols.
  • Macaulay, Thomas Babington (1880), The Armada, and Other Poems, London, Blackie and Son.
  • Macaulay, Thomas Babington (1885), Essays and Lays of Ancient Rome, London and New York, Longmans, Green, and Co.
  • [No stated author] (1818), The Tight Little Island, When the Hollow DRUM, and There was an Old Woman in our Town, Edinburgh, Printed for the Booksellers.
  • [No stated author] (1824), The Bonny Lass of Calder Braes, to which are added, The Snug Little Island, Jeanny’s Bawbee, and Q Mary of Scotland’s Farwel to Calais, Falkirk, [n. p.].
  • [No stated author] (1815-25), Catharine Ogie, to which are added Daddy Neptune and The Lincolnshire Knight, Edinburgh, Printed for the Booksellers.
  • [No stated author] (1824), The Lyre: A Collection of the Most Approved English, Irish, and Scottish Songs, Ancient and Modern, Edinburgh, A. Stewart and W. Rollo.
  • Patterson, John (1857), Memoir of Joseph Train, F. S. A. Scot, the Antiquarian Correspondent of Sir Walter Scott, Glasgow, Thomas Murray and Son; Edinburgh, John Menzies.
  • Saglia, Diego (2000), Poetic Castles in Spain: British Romanticism and Figurations of Iberia, Amsterdam, Rodopi.
  • Shelley, Mary (1831), Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus. By the Author of The Last Man, Perkin Warbeck, &c. &c. Revised, Corrected, and Illustrated with a New Introduction, by the Author, London, Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley.
  • Southey, Robert (1797), Letters Written during a Short Residence in Spain and Portugal… With some Account of Spanish and Portugueze Poetry, Bristol, Bulgin and Rosser, for Joseph Cottle, and London, G. G. and J. Robinson, and Caddell and Davis.
  • Southey, Robert (1823), The Minor Poems of Robert Southey. In Three Volumes, London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown.
  • Southey, Robert (1831), Selections from the Poems of Robert Southey, Esq. LL. D. Poet Laureate, &c. &c.: Chiefly for the Use of Schools and Young Persons, London, Edward Moxon.
  • Southey, Robert (1832), «Lives of the British Admirals with an Introductory View of the Naval History of England», in One Cabinet Cyclopedia Conducted by the Rev. Dionysius Lardner. Assisted by Eminent Literary and Scientific Men. Biography, by Lardner, Dionysius, ed. Vol. ii, London, Longman, Rees, Brown, Green, & Longman, and John Taylor, pp. 278-370.
  • Southey, Robert (1833-40), Lives of the British Admirals. With an Introductory View of the Naval History of England, by _____, LL. D. Poet Laureate, London, Longman, Bles, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman, 5 vols.
  • Southey, Robert (1837), The Poetical Works of Robert Southey Collected by Himself. In Ten Volumes, London, Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans.
  • Strype, John (1824), Annals of the Reformation and Establishment of Religion, and Other Various Occurrences in the Church of England, during Queen Elizabeth’s Happy Reign. Together with an Appendix of Original Papers of State, Records, and Letters. A New Edition. Vol. ii, Part ii, Oxford, Clarendon Press.
  • Train, Joseph (1814), Poems, with Notes Illustrative of Traditions in Galloway and Ayrshire, Edinburgh, [n. p.].
  • Vega Carpio, Lope de (1598), La Dragontea, Valencia, Pedro Patricio Mev.
  • Wathen, Bruce (2009), Sir Francis Drake: The Construction of a Hero, Cambridge, D. S. Brewer.
  • Wordsworth, W. (1800), Lyrical Ballads, with Other Poems. In Two Volumes. Second Edition, London, T. N. Longman and O. Rees.